


You're the Worst

by bestthreemonths



Series: Campverse [2]
Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 20:28:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5469857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bestthreemonths/pseuds/bestthreemonths
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Fine, boring,” Tobin says, but then a mischievous glint appears in her eyes. “What was your first impression of KO? And don’t lie, because I was in your cabin that summer.”</p><p>The unabridged version of how Kelley and Alex came to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You're the Worst

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is part of my Long Hot Summer camp universe, and REAL LIFE HAPPENINGS have absolutely ZERO bearing on my FICTIONAL world, so keep any and all comments mindful of that :)

She doesn’t know what it is about the new girl that makes her skin crawl. Maybe it’s the way she came into camp like she owned the place, or maybe it’s the way that everyone else just liked her right off the bat. Alex has always had a quiet confidence about her, but there’s nothing quiet about this girl, and really, she seems just plain arrogant.

“Hey, wanna go to the Canteen?” Tobin asks when they’re hanging out in the cabin.

“Sure,” Alex agrees, sitting up in her bed to grab her backpack.

“Cool, I’ll go get Kelley,” Tobin says.

“Kelley’s going?” Alex groans.

“Is that a problem?” Tobin asks, confused. As great as Tobin is, sometimes she’s completely oblivious.

“Oh, not at all,” Alex says. “Other than the fact that I’d rather light myself on fire than be in the same room with her.”

“Why do you hate her?” Tobin laughs. “She’s really cool.”

“She knows it,” Alex says. “She’s so into herself, I can’t believe nobody else sees it.”

“Whatever you say, dude,” Tobin says. “Are you coming or not?”

“Not,” Alex says. “I’ll catch you later.”

Instead, she finds Ali, who graciously agrees to having her ass kicked on the tennis courts, one of many places Alex can win something against her. She plays a particularly good game, probably aided by her strategy of picturing Kelley’s cocky smirk plastered against the tennis ball.

~

If you ask Kelley, Alex is the problem.

First of all, she’s snobby as hell. At least the other girls she hangs around who have been coming to camp since they could practically walk—and are therefore so far superior—are nice and welcoming. Like Ali, who intimidated the hell out of Kelley but complimented her headband on the first day of camp and has since been a solid acquaintance, and Liz, who’s super nice to everyone and doesn’t seem to have any sense of camp hierarchy. She certainly wouldn’t call them friends, mostly because they’re around Alex like 80 percent of the time.

She doesn’t think she did anything wrong to offend Alex, so she just assumes Alex is like that to everyone. At first, it was her mission to get Alex to like her, so she’d make conversation in a group or smile and wave at her when they passed each other in the dining hall, but each time she’d receive a fake smile and a judgmental eyebrow raise. So she gave up, deciding it didn’t matter if Alex likes her, there are plenty of other friends for her to make.

So she does. Sydney, who’s in her cabin, and Tobin, who is in Alex’s, become sort of her “crew,” and she makes friends all across camp, quickly feeling right at home. Alex isn’t even a blip on her radar. Except when she is.

Like right now, when their cabins have a pool period together and Kelley catches a glimpse of Alex grinning and clinging to Liz, who’s carrying her on her back through the water toward Tobin, who’s carrying Syd like a baby and playing some game where she has to guess the color Tobin is thinking of.

She’s always known Alex to be long and lanky in clothes, and she’s pretty, sure, but Kelley thought she was going through a sort of awkward growth spurt till she sees her in a bikini and realizes she’s more like an underwear model, not skinny, but lean and strong and all the things that get lost under clothes that are a size too big.

Her heart sinks a little bit when she realizes she can’t join in on their fun when Alex is involved, so she distracts herself by initiating a game of water polo in the deep end. It doesn’t take long for Tobin and Syd to join, but she sees Alex hang back, pretending she doesn’t care, but all her friends are playing.

“Alex!” Kelley calls. “Want to play?” Alex looks taken aback, like she can’t believe Kelley would ask, but she quickly regains her composure.

“Teams are even,” she says.

“We can recruit someone else,” Kelley offers. “Or you can join the other team, they’ll need all the help they can get against me.”

Alex scoffs, rolling her eyes. “I’m sure,” she says. “Have fun, I’ll pass.”

Kelley shrugs, reciprocating the eyeroll. See? Alex is totally the problem.

~

One of the first Color War challenges is Ultimate Frisbee, and Alex and Kelley are on the same team, because of course they are. Alex watches as Kelley dominates the game, wanting her team to win but simultaneously wishing Kelley wouldn’t get all the glory. Her obnoxious celebrations just add to Alex’s irritation.

Meanwhile, Kelley watches as Alex barely tries, making her wonder why she’s even on the field. She’s good at a lot of things, but this is not among them. When Alex wanders into the way of a disc sent perfectly toward Kelley, she has no choice but to push her out of the way to grab it, but she never gets the chance, as she’s yanked down right along with her.

“What the hell?” Alex exclaims, pushing Kelley off her even though she pulled her down to begin with. She stands up to brush the dirt and grass off her legs, but then looks down at her feet and screams. “Oh my God, get them off!”

Kelley looks at Alex’s ankles, which are covered in fire ants, slowly realizing that the tingling around her upper thighs isn’t from landing so harshly on the field and that the colony of fire ants they had disturbed when Alex landed is now getting its payback on Alex’s ankles and Kelley’s ass.

Tobin and Syd are the first the come to their rescue, using their Color War bandanas to brush off the ants. Alex is crying now, but Kelley is just in shock, her legs shaking. She barely even notices being ushered onto a golf cart beside Alex, and before she knows it, they’re in the infirmary being tended to by Cap and Boxxy, who double as nurses when needed.

Once Kelley is sufficiently humiliated by having to strip down to her underwear in front of everyone in the infirmary and having Cap apply rubbing alcohol and medicine to places a 14-year-old girl doesn’t want anyone to see, she has to wrap a towel around her waist and sit her bare (and burning) bottom on a cold plastic cot. Someone must fill the directors in on what happened, because when they finish treating their stings, Cap, Boxxy, and the counselors that came with them speak in hushed voices in the corner of the room as Alex and Kelley sit on their respective cots, arms folded and backs to each other.

“Thanks,” Cap says, dismissing the rest. When they’re alone in the room, she looks between the two. “Care to explain?” she asks.

“She pushed me!” Alex exclaims.

“She pulled me down!” Kelley says at the same time.

“It wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t initiated it!” Alex retorts.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have been just standing there in the middle of a game!” Kelley says. “If you’d been paying attention, maybe I wouldn’t have _accidentally_ knocked you over.”

“Accident my ass!” Alex exclaims.

“Your ass?” Kelley replies. “What about mine?”

“Ladies!” Cap says loudly, not a scream or a yell, just a firm indication to shut up now. “This is ridiculous. I don’t know what’s going on here, but it is completely unacceptable. Alex, I’ve known you for a long time, and you’re one of the kindest people I know. Kelley, in the time I’ve known you, I’ve only seen a girl who is friends with everyone. What on earth could possibly have come between you?”

She watches as Alex and Kelley look at each other out of the corners of their eyes, not willing to budge and turn toward each other.

“Is this about a boy?” she sighs.

Kelley scoffs out a laugh. “No,” she says.

“Fine,” Cap says. “Don’t tell me. But you aren’t leaving here till you’ve figured it out and have come to some sort of agreement that ensures this will never happen again.” She sets a walkie talkie on the counter across from them. “You can reach me on channel 3 when you’re ready to be mature,” she says. “In the meantime, I suppose just do your best not to kill each other.”

When she leaves, they’re quiet, still silently refusing to turn to the other.

“What is this, the fucking Parent Trap?” Alex mumbles.

“I’m almost positive we weren’t separated at birth,” Kelley snaps. “If I’d had to share a womb with you, only one of us would have survived.”

“And it would be you of course, considering you’re so much better than everyone at everything,” Alex says, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Doesn’t take much to be better than you at anything fun,” Kelley retorts. “Considering you seem to be morally opposed to it.”

“Just because I don’t show off doesn’t mean I don’t have fun.”

“Just because I’m having fun doesn’t mean I’m showing off.”

“I’m pretty sure everything you’ve ever said to me is bragging about how great you are in some way,” Alex says. “Case in point, the water polo game.”

“I was joking,” Kelley says. “You really don’t get fun, do you? I can’t believe I ever wanted to be your friend.”

Alex scoffs. “Yeah, okay.”

“What?” Kelley asks. “You’re the one who was standoffish every time I even tried to talk to you.”

“Talk to me?” Alex laughs. “Infiltrating my group of friends and then talking to me as an afterthought just so they keep thinking you’re a nice person doesn’t actually count. I’ve had you figured out from day one, and you’ve done nothing but prove me right.”

“You’re joking, right?” Kelley asks. “You were such a snob to me from the moment we met. Sorry if my trying to impress you and make you like me came off as insincere, but it’s not my fault you have impossible standards.”

“The moment we met you were proclaiming yourself new best friends with two of my best friends!” Alex exclaims. “And I barely get to hang out with them anymore thanks to you.”

“You could just hang out with all of us if you weren’t so against me,” Kelley reminds her. “Like, why do you hate me?” she asks, turning so she’s fully facing Alex. “Because maybe I went about becoming your friend the wrong way, and that sucks, but I still think you seem like a decent enough person. If I’m the problem, then good, because I can change that. That’s kind of better than you just being a miserable person who thinks she’s better than everyone. But you’re going to have to figure out if I’m the problem or if it’s your perception of me. Because I think we might be trapped in a situation where we both let our assumptions get the best of us.”

“I don’t know,” Alex says. “All this time I guess I just thought you were doing it on purpose to rub my face in it.”

“Doing what?” Kelley asks, exasperated.

“Everything,” Alex says. “Being friends with my friends, being the cool new girl, being smarter and funnier and prettier and just better at everything.”

“You think I’m pretty?” Kelley says with a smirk, earning an eye roll from Alex.

“Like you don’t know you are,” Alex says. “But that’s not the point.”

“For what it’s worth, I think you are too,” Kelley says. “And before right now, I thought you knew it. Like, I don’t know how you couldn’t know it.” Alex’s cheeks turn pink, and she avoids eye contact, choosing to stare at the floor instead. “Listen, I don’t talk to many people about this, but I feel like you should know.”

“Okay,” Alex says, looking up slowly.

Kelley takes a deep breath. “I came to camp this summer because life in my hometown has been completely miserable. My family is great, that’s not the problem, but I’ve had this whole group of friends since I was in preschool, and I lost them all this year.”

“What happened?” Alex asks softly.

“For starters, a new girl came to my school,” she says. “I started high school, and it’s bigger so a bunch of middle schools came there. So she wasn’t the only new girl, and I mean, I was the new girl to other people, but she was the one that really got to me for some reason. All those things you said about me, that’s how I felt about her. She became friends with all my friends, and I hated her so much for it. She was good in every subject, she became a varsity cheerleader and convinced some of my soccer teammates to leave soccer to try out with her, she was pretty, and everyone loved her, except for me.”

Alex nods slowly, not sure where Kelley’s going with this, but almost feeling smug at the fact that someone made Kelley feel the way she does.

“I was really obvious about it, and I tried really hard to make my friends see what I saw, you know? That she was manipulative and horrible and just a terrible person. But they ended up seeing me for what I was, which was mainly bitter and jealous. So they started turning their backs on me and I ended up pushing them even closer to her, which was obviously the opposite of what I wanted.”

Kelley stops, taking a deep breath, and Alex holds her own.

“I don’t—I’ve never said this to anyone except my sister,” Kelley says. “But I didn’t hate the girl. I was just scared.”

“I know how it feels,” Alex says. “Being scared to lose your friends like that.”

“I wasn’t scared of that,” Kelley says. “I mean, I was, of course. But only because I was scared of how I felt about that girl. I thought I hated her because she was all these things I wanted to be, but I really admired all those things about her. I was scared because I had a crush on her.”

The room is so silent you could hear a pin drop, and both girls seem to be holding her breath. Then, Alex does the completely unexpected.

She laughs.

“Seriously?” Alex says. “Good God, how full of yourself can you be to assume the only way someone could possibly dislike you is because they secretly have a crush on you?”

“I’m not assuming anything,” Kelley says. “Hoping, maybe.”

That gets Alex’s attention, but she doesn’t say anything, instead narrowing her eyes and searching Kelley’s for any sign that this is some new way to make her feel stupid, but all she finds is truth.

Kelley inches closer to Alex’s cot, the cloth of the towel against her bare thighs, reminding her of the reason they’re here in the first place. “Have you ever kissed a girl?” she asks.

Alex is silent, just barely shaking her head from side to side as she stares at Kelley’s lips. She wets her own instinctively, and as soon as her tongue returns to her mouth, Kelley’s lips are on hers, soft and warm, and she’s not pulling away. When Kelley finally does, Alex’s eyes remain closed. The smile on Kelley’s face when she opens them again is sweet and nervous.

“I guess I have now,” Alex breathes, unable to find her voice.

“And?” Kelley asks.

“I’m not sure yet,” Alex says, leaning back in for another.

Just to be sure.


End file.
